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Nursing Care Plan for Hypertensive Heart Disease : Acute Pain

Hypertensive heart disease includes a number of complications of high blood pressure that affect the heart. While there are several definitions of hypertensive heart disease in the medical literature, the term is most widely used in the context of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding categories. The definition includes heart failure and other cardiac complications of hypertension when a causal relationship between the heart disease and hypertension is stated or implied on the death certificate.

The symptoms and signs of hypertensive heart disease will depend on whether or not it is accompanied by heart failure. In the absence of heart failure, hypertension, with or without enlargement of the heart (left ventricular hypertrophy) is usually symptomless. Symptoms and signs of chronic heart failure can include:

Fatigue

Irregular pulse or palpitations

Swelling of feet and ankles

Weight gain

Nausea

Shortness of breath

Difficulty sleeping flat in bed (orthopnea)

Bloating and abdominal pain

Greater need to urinate at night

An enlarged heart (cardiomegaly)

Patients can present acutely with heart failure and pulmonary edema due to sudden failure of pump function of the heart. Acute heart failure can be precipitated by a variety of causes including myocardial ischemia, marked increases in blood pressure, or cardiac dysrhythmias, especially atrial fibrillation. Alternatively heart failure can develop insidiously over time.(wikipedia).